Friday, December 14, 2012

X-Mas & Music: As perfect together as pepper & mint

Take the family out or spend a cozy evening with your significant other; Bend has got some great opportunites for you to have a musical Christmas.

Moscow Boys Choir / $25-$457:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17Tower TheatreWorld famous and in the holiday spirit, the Moscow Boys Choir will be in Bend for one special night. Expect Christmas standards as well as Russian folk songs from these 25 young men.

On A Lite Christmas Nite / $30-$526 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16Athletic Club of BendIf you’re a fan of jazz, there is no better way to celebrate Christmas than with an all-star cast of musicians. On A Lite Christmas Nite brings together the talents of David Pack, Euge Groove, Jeff Golub, Jeff Lorber and Bend favorite, saxophonist Jeff Kashiwa. Whoa—that’s three Jeffs. Or what’s known as a Jeff-tet. At any rate, you’ll hear some fantastic Christmas Jazz while sitting in tennis-courts-turned-winter-wonderland at the Athletic Club of Bend.

Patrick Lamb’s Holiday Soul / $395 p.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 226:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23The Oxford HotelThere aren’t too many people who make the saxophone hip. Enter Patrick Lamb. This Mississippi native and now Oregonian has done it all. Jazz standards, funk and soul are all a part of his catalogue, though according to the name of the event, soul might be the focus. Even so, it’s a safe bet Lamb and his band—a cast of jazz heavyweights will have some surprises in store. After all, this isn’t your father’s jazz.

Sunriver Music Festival’s Jazz Christmas ConcertChuck Israels and his Jazz Orchestra / $307:00 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14Sunriver Resort HomesteadLegend, it’s the only word you need to know about Chuck Israels. Sure adding the clarifier “jazz” to that might help, but when you have been churning out the kind of music Israels has for the last 50 plus years, you simply stand with the best of everyone. Nine other musicians and vocalists will accompany Israels for this special Christmas show, but make sure you watch the man playing the bass. They’ll be taking their cues from him.